I wish I had a good excuse for this. It started out as the innocently fluffy idea of sleepy Nico wearing Jason's clothes, but it turned into this.
The sound of someone shuffling around in the kitchen pulls Jason out of a nice dream. He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to recall what it was about, but comes up with nothing. Sighing, he lazily blinks an eye open to check the time and moans disapprovingly to see it's hardly seven am. Even for Nico, seven on a Saturday is a little early, especially since they'd both stayed up till almost three the night before.
It's only after a few dazed seconds that Jason realizes there is still soft breathing beside him. He rolls over carefully, and, indeed, Nico di Angelo is passed out, his face half buried in his pillow, morning shadow visible on his neck. A trail of drool sits in the corner of his mouth and Jason resists the urge to laugh or run his fingers through the other man's mussed up hair. He grumbles as he realizes he'll probably have to deal with whatever has invaded their kitchen so early in the morning instead of staying in their warm bed.
Sighing quietly, Jason slides out of bed, careful not wake his sleeping boyfriend. The air in his apartment is freezing, and he rushes to pull an old sweatshirt and some sweatpants. Not for the first time, he misses California's mild winters.
He briefly considers grabbing his sword for when he investigates the kitchen, but in the end shrugs and decides to try his luck. It may be a fatal mistake in some cases, but his mind is too bogged down with sleep to really think clearly.
He gently pushes the bedroom door open and sticks his head out to find a teenage girl with spiky black hair and a bow attempting to work his coffee maker. His face breaks into a grin.
"Thalia!" he calls, surprised, but delighted to see her.
Thalia turns around and smiles at him. "Hey, little brother," she greets, which is kind of untrue now considering Jason is an entire foot taller and almost eight years older than her. Nevertheless, Thalia reaches up to ruffle his hair like she did when he was a little boy and pulls him into a hug.
"I haven't seen you in months," Jason laughs. "How are things with the huntresses? What are you doing here?"
Thalia shrugs, smirking. "We dropped by camp and I decided to come by and check up on my baby brother," she explains, squeezing his forearms before finally letting him go. "I wanted to get an early start so we could maybe go somewhere, but sleeping beauty was still asleep."
"Thalia, the sun is barely up," Jason moans.
Thalia rolls her eyes and elbows him playfully in the stomach. "Which was why I was trying to make coffee. But this machine is a piece of crap."
Jason chuckles. "Yeah, I know, but I got it for like three dollars at a garage sale, so what can you expect?"
Thalia tsks disapprovingly as Jason finally manages to get the coffee maker to start. "You know you're best friends with Valdez, right? He could probably whip you up a functional coffee machine in seconds."
Jason rolls his eyes. "Maybe I'll ask him for Christmas."
Thalia only shakes her head at him. "Sorry to wake you up so early, I guess. Sometimes I forget normal people don't get up at dawn every morning," she jokes, taking a seat at the kitchen table and letting her bow rest against the wall.
Jason shrugs. "It's fine. It's just great to see you. I'm only tired because we stayed up so late last night."
"You and who?"
Jason pauses, his mouth falling half open as he realizes his mistakes. Crap. He's been so excited to see his sister that he's completely forgotten the fact that Thalia, and most of their friends for the matter, aren't exactly entirely aware him and Nico are in a relationship in the first place. They'd just agreed to tell everybody when they were ready. Jason doesn't mind his sister knowing, but he really wants to talk to Nico about it first. Unfortunately, his lack of an answer and the blush rising on his face has already clued Thalia in that something is up.
She smirks as she sidles over next to him. "Oh, so you have a new girlfriend?" she asks, grinning playfully.
Jason's ears turn red and he shakes his head. "No, Thalia, can we just…"
But she cuts him off by before he can figure out what to say. "You don't need to be embarrassed," she quips. "Just because I'm a huntress of Artemis doesn't mean I disapprove of you being in a relationship. I was wondering when you'd get over Piper."
Jason sputters. "What? Thalia, will you just let me…"
He's cut off by a raspy voice. "Jason… come back to bed, it's freezing and way too early for whatever existential crisis you're having," Nico mumbles, stepping from the bedroom in nothing but an old t-shirt and Jason's lightning bolt boxers. He has a serious case of bedhead and his eyes are squinted shut against the light. It takes him a few seconds to become aware enough to notice Thalia gaping at him, but when he does his face turns bright red.
There is about ten seconds of awkward silence while they all try to make sense of the situation; Nico considering shadow traveling away, Jason bemoaning whatever deity hates him enough to put him through this, and Thalia putting two and two together.
Jason glances at his sister, eyeing her comically surprised expression warily. "Um.. Thalia, you see-." He wants to tell her it's not what it looks like, but she's no idiot and it totally is exactly what it looks like.
Thalia snorts once, then breaks into a fit of giggles.
Jason's eyebrows raise nearly above his hairline, looking to Nico for some sense of clarity on what he should do. The son of Hades merely scowls, still mortified enough to consider shadow traveling away and forcing Jason to deal with this crap on his own.
"Look, Thalia," Jason begins, voice wavering a little. "We were going to tell you, it's just-"
It takes Thalia a few seconds to pull herself together and become completely aware of the hurt and/or mortified looks on both men's faces. "I'm not upset!" she squeaks setting a hand on Jason's arm to convey her point. "I…. just didn't see this coming," she deadpans, shrugging slightly.
Jason smiles, but he's pretty sure it's more of a grimace. He doesn't know what to say so his mouth just kind of hangs half open as Thalia tries to diffuse the palpable awkward in the room.
"Want to join us for coffee?" she asks Nico after a moment, offering him an uncertain grin.
Nico grunts. "Just… let me put on some pants," he grumbles, before retreating into the bedroom and slamming the door.
The siblings stare at each other for a few seconds before Thalia laughs awkwardly, "Uh… sorry. Do you think he'll ever come out of there?"
Jason gives her a funny look and Thalia shrugs guiltily. "Sorry!" she repeats. "You could have given me a bit of a heads up! I've known that kid since he was an annoying 10-year-old weenie. Who, y'know, could damn me to the underworld forever or kill me with a skeleton army, but that's not the point. It's kind of awkward seeing a kid you've known since he was a shrimp in nothing but your brother's underwear."
Jason groans and buries his face in his hands. "Thalia," he moans, "you really aren't helping."
Thalia pats him on the back, snickering. "I'm not upset though. You didn't think I would be?"
Jason glances up at her, face nearly glowing red. "No…," he replies quietly.
She rolls her eyes. "I mean, we're Greek after all. I'm sure you know the history there. I mean, Apollo-"
"Thalia?" Jason interrupts her.
"Hmm?"
"Are you trying to embarrass me?" Jason grumbles, shooting her a weak glare.
She smirks. "Maybe."
He sighs and breathes deeply through his nose. He wants to be angry, but he only finds himself amused. "You're a terrible sister," he sighs, allowing her to slip an arm around his shoulder and ruffle his hair.
"Hey, you're my baby brother. It's my job," she chuckles. "But you're happy?" Its an earnest question, and for some reason it makes Jason blush nearly as much as when she was commenting at Nico's unfortunate state of undress.
"Yeah. I mean… I really am," he admits, glancing down and trying to hide his hot face.
"You're a sap, Jason," Nico sighs, finally making his grand appearance. He's wearing a pair of old yoga pants and a hoodie now, and though he still looks a little flustered, is decidedly more composed than Jason had expected. He avoids looking directly at Thalia as he slumps into the chair next to his boyfriend.
"You're looking chipper this morning, Mr. Ghost King," Thalia greets sarcastically.
He raises an eyebrow at her. "Normally I don't have to deal with crazy teenagers breaking into my apartment at indecent hours of the morning."
Thalia wisely doesn't comment on how Nico has just referred to Jason's apartment as his own. "I'd have thought that were a normal occurance, all things considered."
Nico shrugs, allowing her point. He accepts the cup of coffee completely black and sips it as if it were water. "Usually they at least have the decency to knock."
Jason's eyebrows knit together. "That's a good point. How did you get in here?" he asks his sister.
Thalia winks. "You'll never know."
Nico looks up at Jason. "Please tell me you've stopped hiding the spare key under the mat."
Jason frowns. "It's a good hiding spot."
Nico facepalms. "It's a wonder we haven't been murdered in our sleep. Honestly, if I didn't… Sometimes you think about as much as Percy."
Jason is about to retort, because could Nico have possibly said something more offensive but Thalia cuts them off by laughing at them. "You two are cute," she chirps, grinning devilishly when they both flush.
"Will you stop teasing me?" Jason moans, but Thalia only sticks out her tongue like the mature eternally 15-year-old she is.
Yep... I'm sorry! Thanks for reading! Jason/Nico is cute and Thalia is a good big sister who only likes to torture her brother a healthy amount. Review if you have any prompts ideas or comments. Thanks!